Thursday, August 17, 2017

The stark reality. Increased defense spending is now off the table.

via Defense News.

With the fiscal year set to expire at the end of September, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is warning that a stopgap funding measure would have a serious impact on a Pentagon attempting to modernize its capabilities.

Operating under a continuing resolution, or CR, would be “about as unwise as can be,” Mattis told reporters this week at the Pentagon.

It is a tradition that all those serving as secretary of defense have grown used to over the past five years: sounding the alarm about what a CR will do to readiness and modernization, publicly begging Congress to fix the problem and then getting on with life when the budget is inevitably passed toward the end of the year.

There are indications that Congress will follow that pattern this year, with the expectation of a CR to keep things working after September before a final budget is arranged around Christmas. But until that situation sorts itself out, Mattis will most likely follow the script laid out by Ash Carter, Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta — sounding the alarm about the impact of a CR, which freezes funding at levels from the previous year while preventing new start programs from launching.

Because of Donald Trump's erratic behavior, his idiotic tweeting and his alienation of almost every conservative except those that belong to the Neo-Nazis, KKK, White Supremacists or their supporters.....

You can stick a fork in increased defense spending for the balance of his next few years in office.

The amazing thing?

Dude really had a chance. He had a chance to do everything he said he wanted to do. Increase defense spending, revamp trade, redo our relationship with Russia, balance the ledger with China, get the fuck outta the Middle East etc....